The Burden of Incantation Fetter's Arms
by Khilari
Summary: Love in the shadow of Ragnarok. 50 sentences. Loki/Sigyn. Warnings: Implied torture, character death.


#01 - Ring

Marriage is a promise that he'll always come back to her and Loki keeps his promises.

#02 - Hero

Freya makes a nasty remark about how long it's taking Sigyn to master a particular spell and the next day wakes up to find her cats have been shaved.

#03 - Memory

Loki asks Sif how it works to be a seer, how she can remember the future, and she says that it's like weaving, seeing the way the next several lines of weft must go to make the pattern; Sigyn isn't sure what point Loki's trying to make but the next morning there isn't a single piece of yarn in the house and she has to stop Roskva attacking him with a ladle.

#04 - Box

Even snuggled up against Sigyn Loki still sometimes dreams of the box Geirrod kept him in, except that she tends to turn up in it as well and her presence at least makes captivity bearable.

#05 - Run

Loki lives his life in constant motion, running towards things he desires, away from things he fears, chasing down ideas like a cat chasing butterflies; Sigyn is quiet, still, staying put and making the best of what she has.

#06 - Hurricane

Yggdrasil sways in the storm as Odin rides out, Sleipnir tossing his head eagerly as the wind picks up, the air filled with the baying of hounds and the calling of huntsmen, the voices of the Wild Hunt; Loki's feet are planted on the branch and he moves with it easily as it bucks under him, Sigyn held close against his chest as they hold vigil together through the longest night.

#07 - Wings

The kestrel tumbles helplessly as Hugin and Munin mob it, crisp brown feathers scattering in the air, and Sigyn, recognising Loki, runs across the yard to catch him in her skirt, 'What did you do _this_ time?' she asks as she picks him up, careful of his wings as they drape over her hand.

#08 - Cold

Sigyn rubs her wrinkled hands together, the fingers cold with age, thinking of Idunn scared and alone in a Thjazi's hall, of Thor unable to fight and Midgard and Asgard both at risk, and for once she can't find a way to be on Loki's side.

#09 - Red

Red skin on Sigyn's feet where her shoes long since wore through, on her hands where the venom slops over, red on Loki's face where it eats at him, on Loki's wrists and waist where he pulls against the bonds, in his mouth which is torn from screaming, until even their thoughts turn red.

#10 - Drink

Loki is drunk, lips as sweet with mead as his words are bitter with it, so Sigyn kisses him and keeps only the sweetness.

#11 - Midnight

Sigyn is beautiful in the moonlight, hair silvered with it and soft eyes shining, and as always she's completely unaware of it.

#12 - Temptation

Loki's never tried to resist temptation before, but marriage isn't something he's meant to want.

#13 - View

From the top of Yggdrasil Sigyn can see _everything_, the worlds are spread out below her like quilts thrown across its branches and she catches her breath as those branches sway in the wind between worlds, everything is so fragile and precious, but the moment is ruined when a deer starts to eat her hair and Loki just leans back against Yggdrasil's trunk and laughs.

#14 - Music

Loki sings like fire - in a happy, tuneless crackle which should be unpleasant but is oddly soothing.

#15 - Silk

'I invented spiders,' says Loki, watching Sigyn admire the web hung with dew like some magnificent banner in miniature, and she laughs uncertainly because it might be true.

#16 - Cover

Thrown mead covers Thor's chariot and Loki glares at it, but Sigyn's not called Incantation-Fetter for nothing and it fails to catch light.

#17 - Promise

The first time Sigyn is pregnant she asks Loki to promise he'll be in Asgard when the child is born; he refuses, feeling betrayed that she would attempt to bind him even over a little thing, and leaving her bewildered by his anger.

#18 - Dream

Loki sleeps restlessly and, although he stays a man, Sigyn thinks that he is shifting in his dreams, for a moment his hands twitch as if he is running on all fours and his head tosses against the pillows, then he twists to lie on his back, head cocking from side to side like a bird, before he falls deeper asleep, breath evening out as he stills, and Sigyn hopes that whatever he is now his dreams are sweet ones.

#19 - Candle

When Loki is gone Sigyn lights candles too early in the day, preferring to do her tasks by the flickering, intimate glow of flames rather than the steady light of the sun.

#20 - Talent

Jokes about Loki's silver tongue take on another meaning when Sigyn discovers it's not just words he's talented with.

#21 - Silence

Sigyn hardly knows Loki when they sew his lips shut but, after seeing the others laugh at him while his eyes burn with mute insults and reproaches, she plucks up her courage and goes after him with salve.

#22 - Journey

Sigyn goes to Thrym's house alongside Loki, dressed as another of "Freya's" serving maids - afterwards, as soon as both maids are out of Thor's sight, they collapse laughing in each other's arms.

#23 - Fire

Loki's kisses are hot and his tongue licks at her like a flame until she is ablaze beneath him.

#24 - Strength

Loki breaks easily and recovers quickly, never down for long, Sigyn is quiet and seems soft, but she stands firm - the only thing their strengths have in common is how easily they can be mistaken for weaknesses.

#25 - Mask

Sigyn thinks of Loki's shapeshifting as a mask at first, a way for him to hide his true self behind the flickering, inconstant forms, but after a while she realises that all of Loki's many selves are true.

#26 - Ice

'He's not sick,' says Loki, smiling as Narvi, newborn and ice-cold, curls a fist around his finger, 'All my children are freaks.'

#27 - Fall

'Careful, you'll fall,' says Sigyn, grabbing Loki's arm, and he laughs because she's forgotten he can fly.

#28 - Forgotten

'I've forgotten,' is a terrible answer when the question is, 'why did you do that?' but Sigyn rather suspects she's getting the truth for once.

#29 - Dance

Loki dances like a flame, with shimmering unselfconscious grace, so when he takes Sigyn's hands to pull her onto the dance floor she's surprised to find herself touching solid flesh and with her hands unburnt.

#30 - Body

Lovely as Sigyn's body is Loki is still confounded by her ability to be satisfied with a single form.

#31 - Sacred

Loki prides himself on holding nothing sacred (well, maybe Sigyn, just a little).

#32 - Farewells

Loki always disappears without a word no matter how long he expects to be gone - by this point if he ever said 'farewell' to Sigyn she'd probably panic.

#33 - World

The wall cuts Asgard off from the worlds around it so they eat breakfast sitting atop it, living in the space it was meant to fill.

#34 - Formal

Sigyn prefers not to speak up at councils, dislikes being the centre of attention, while Loki likes it too much and gives advice just to be noticed.

#35 - Fever

Illness does what Sigyn thought was impossible - makes Loki quiet and obedient - and it breaks her heart.

#36 - Laugh

Sigyn seems so quiet, always keeping her head down at the banquets she serves at and always reserved when Loki talks to her, that he's startled the first time he makes her laugh and more surprised still to find a sharp sense of humour under her shyness.

#37 - Lies

Loki returns from every journey with tales and despite that Sigyn can never be sure where he's been.

#38 - Forever

The only way things can last forever is by never changing, so Asgard was doomed as soon as they let Loki in; Sigyn thinks the bargain is worth it, but sometimes wonders why Odin, lacking her reasons, felt the same.

#39 - Overwhelmed

If there's one thing Loki's always known about love it's that there's always something that will make him lose it, always a line he'll cross in the end, except with Sigyn there isn't and it's strange enough to be almost frightening when he realises there's someone he can't lose.

#40 - Whisper

Sigyn knows of Loki before she knows him; the things people say, the things they don't say, the things they say in whispers.

#41 - Wait

It sometimes feels as if she spends half her life waiting for Loki to come home.

#42 - Talk

Hearing Loki's normal voice coming from a hawk or a fox or, most of all, a fly never stops being bewildering.

#43 - Search

After Baldr's death all of the Aesir search for Loki but Sigyn is the one that finds him, she's also the only one to get an apology as they cling together helplessly that night; in the morning she leaves, knowing that her presence might make it easier for them to find him, and no one in Asgard questions her tears.

#44 - Hope

Ragnarok means everything will end, but Sigyn still has hope for a future between now and then.

#45 - Eclipse

Fenrir gazes at the sun more often as the longing grows in him to devour everything bright and his games with Loki have started to end with bite marks, Loki bruised and bleeding under his paws; Sigyn knows both that these things are connected and that it won't be long before Tyr alone dares to go near the wolf.

#46 - Gravity

Loki can go as far as he likes for as long as he likes and sooner or later he'll still find himself pulled back to Sigyn's side.

#47 - Highway

'Is this actually a road?' Sigyn asks and Loki grins at her, 'It is if we're walking on it.'

#48 - Unknown

'There will be a future after Ragnarok, and you'll survive to see it, so you'd better make sure it turns out well because I, for one, am not putting any faith in Baldr.'

#49 - Lock

There is no key to Loki's bonds, no spell that can undo them, only the wearing away of time as Sigyn watches.

#50 - Breathe

Sigyn wraps her arms around Loki's dead body, Midgard falling away below them as Yggdrasil's trembling branches shake it loose, and tries to breathe through sobs that threaten to tear her open.


End file.
